


when the morning stars sang together

by Qu-ko (Qu_the_Mighty)



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-31
Updated: 2014-03-31
Packaged: 2018-01-17 16:31:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1394524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qu_the_Mighty/pseuds/Qu-ko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Penanceshipping 50sentences. Rated a low R for heavily implied smut.</p>
            </blockquote>





	when the morning stars sang together

_first kiss_  
  
Ryouga knows he'll deny to his dying breath that his first kiss was acquired from a a game of chicken with IV over Rio's relationship status (or lack thereof), but to himself, he thinks at least IV knows how to use that stupid tongue of his for more than spouting bullshit all the time.  
  
 _final_  
  
As a final insult to injury, IV grins and taps his lips at him before moving over to greet Rio as though she's royalty, and that's when Ryouga realizes something has to give, and soon.  
  
 _numb_  
  
It turns out that something gives the very next day, when IV holds a surprise press conference; Rio whispers, "How does it feel to have thrown your life away like that?" with no small amount of astonishment, and he says, "You know, it doesn't really feel like anything anymore."  
  
 _broken wings_  
  
There is something in IV's posture after that, something very small and very sad but perfectly willing to do whatever either of them said if they thought it would put them on even ground again, a sign he's trying to extend a hand that even Ryouga can't so easily brush off anymore.  
  
 _melody_  
  
Rio's voice has a happy tune to it when she tells Ryouga that she's going on a date; she doesn't bother to mention who it's with, because from the ambivalent look on his face, he already knows, and he knows the reason why, too.  
  
 _rules_  
  
"No holding hands, no flirting with her, and don't you dare even think about kissing, or I'll—" an awkward pause, "I'll tell her you came onto me first," and another awkward pause as Ryouga glances away.  
  
 _chocolate_  
  
When asked where she got the truffles she's eating, because didn't she say she wanted to cut back earlier, Rio is vague in her answer, so Ryouga follows up instead with who gave them to her — it looks like he's right on target, because she responds, with a peculiar lilt to her voice and a small quirk of her lips, "I have no idea," before popping another into her mouth.  
  
 _nostalgia_  
  
Sometimes he sits in the parlor of the once-again livable mansion and thinks back to when the fireplace and their parents both provided them with enough warmth to get by, pretending not to notice IV hovering in the doorway behind him, watching him and pretending in turn that he has nothing to say.  
  
 _heartbeat_  
  
It's never awkward or strange to feel his sister's heartbeat at his back, but Ryouga is sure his nearly stops when she says to him completely unprompted, "He said you two kissed, and that he didn't want to kiss me until he told me the truth."  
  
 _stranger_ _  
  
_It sucks to feel like the chronic outsider in a trio of outsiders, a fact IV feels more comfortable confiding in Rio than Ryouga; at least when she tries to hide her frown at him, it's not accompanied by that piercing north Atlantic blue glare.  
  
 _confusion_  
  
"I don't understand," Rio finally murmurs, her shoulders dropping, "why it is so hard for you two to just admit you care about each other the way I care about you both?"  
  
 _bitter_  
  
As her brother walks in and starts bantering with IV about hitting on his sister (or not hitting on his sister, as IV rightfully claims), Rio wonders to herself why Ryouga still seems to feel they are such bitter enemies; she starts making plans to escape across the room in case they feel the need to kiss again, perhaps.  
  
 _afterlife_  
  
But Rio has long since left the room when Ryouga finally asks him if it hurt, in a quiet voice; IV knows what he means instantly and says with no apparent heat, "It hurt you a lot more, and yet I didn't even get to kick your ass in the afterlife for that shit... what a shame, huh?"  
  
 _daybreak_  
  
She's been awake all night but still isn't tired, running on a cocktail of determination and guilt over the whole situation — as she watches night pass into twilit near-sunrise, Rio stands up and decides to make breakfast early, just in case, as she hasn't heard IV leave at any point during the night...  
  
 _audience_  
  
"Oh," she utters, letting go of the door handle to the parlor in her surprise from catching IV kneeling in front of Ryouga with both of their pants down, "I'll just... let you two finish up, then."  
  
 _endless sorrow_  
  
Rio immediately decides she will not sorrow over their choice, but that changes the very next night when she dreams of herself, and IV, and herself and IV.  
  
 _fireworks_  
  
The spot she touches on his arm tingles like sparks, and IV feels the mass of guilt well up when the horrible voice, his own voice, the one that has always enjoyed suffering of any kind (even his own) coaxes to him, _kiss her, take her, you could, you know you could, she wants you to, be a real man_ — and it is the last part that decides him.  
  
 _wishing_  
  
"Treat me like you treat my brother," she implores him, and IV turns to her with a look halfway between _Are you absolutely serious?_ and _I wish I could, if only your brother wouldn't kill me on two separate counts_.  
  
 _happy birthday to you_  
  
"Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Since it's Friday the thirteenth, I guess you're pretty screwed—" but it doesn't even _rhyme,_ for crying out loud, Ryouga thinks as he throws the card Michael has slipped onto his deck before class into the dark reaches of his bookbag, never to be heard from again.  
  
 _tomorrow_  
  
And yet the card makes a surprise reappearance when Rio fishes it out of his bag and points out the same trifling little detail that was on hers — "Meet me tomorrow at the harbor; I have something to say to both of you."  
  
 _oppression_  
  
He laughs, and it sounds vacant and fragile: "Look, whether you like it or not, I care about you both, and that's why I took the easy way out, only it wasn't the easy way out, it was the hard way in and you've already got enough to forgive me for, anyway, and — yeah, fuck it, I'm sorry," IV finishes, shoulders pinched.  
  
 _agony_  
  
"The _easy way out_?" Ryouga quotes in deep, deep disbelief, "You mean fucking around with my sister's feelings, causing her all this grief, and then deciding you don't want to bother with _either_ of us?"  
  
 _return_  
  
IV wonders then what kind of royal fucking asshole of a demon he managed to bargain with to acquire these kinds of feelings for two related but very different people he's already screwed up with to the ends of the earth and back, and thinks to himself, _Whatever it was, I want a goddamn refund._  
  
 _protection_  
  
Ryouga storms off in the aftermath of landing a solid punch to IV's jaw, so Rio places a hand on the raw spot — he flinches — and murmurs, "I know he just wants to protect me, but I don't think he wants to admit it's hurting him, too."  
  
 _boxes_  
  
"But if you would just learn to work outside of your box for _once in your life_ , Ryouga, maybe the best solution here wouldn't be so hard for you to see!" she screams at him, taking the utter silence that follows to collect the breath and dignity used on such a powerful implication.  
  
 _hope_  
  
"I hope you know what you're saying, Rio," Ryouga grumbles, rubbing his temples in a tired effort to fight off the impending complications this situation is about to take on, "because that's not just something you get to suggest lightly and then forget about."  
  
 _preparation_  
  
IV steels himself to get two equally powerful fists to his nose as Rio and Ryouga both approach him with straight faces, but can't contain his surprise when Rio steps forward first to catch his face and kiss him, with Ryouga standing _right there_ — and the situation clicks, much to his surprise, when she steps aside and her brother darts in with a this-is-all-for-Rio's-sake sort of scowl on his face to finish the job.  
  
 _beautiful_  
  
Watching the dual gesture echo across his face, making him flush, his whole world turned upside down, is an extraordinary sight; a beautiful reaction, Rio thinks, that is reserved exclusively for her — for the two of them.  
  
 _lies_  
  
He tries to claim it isn't like that, it isn't like he's so needy he wants both of them at once, because who the fuck would _ever_ , and he doesn't date fans, and definitely not two at once, because that's weird as hell — but Rio is the one to move her face inches from his, enough to feel her own breath on his face, and say, "Please don't ruin this with your pretty lies."  
  
 _underneath_  
  
As such, Rio is also the first to find herself pinioned beneath IV and his extremely talented mouth, because he has already made the cardinal mistake of suggesting that it'd be really hot if they just sucked it up (literally) and did it all together; she only responds by blushing deeply and dragging him off in an effort not to have her brother's sloppy seconds for once in her life.  
  
 _hide_  
  
"I was hoping that giving your sister a little extra fanservice to piss you off would make you take charge when it was your turn," he purrs at Ryouga later, who clamps a hand down on his hip hard and snarls, "I'll give you _fanservice_ , you asshole"; IV doesn't even bother to hide his devious smirk as he bucks against him.  
  
 _diary_  
  
"After all, I know I only wanted to share that happiness with Ryouga, and in so doing, I am happy, too," she writes, and places her pen down just as her brother calls her down to dinner.  
  
 _unforeseen_  
  
It doesn't take long for tabloid magazines to start babbling excitedly and having a field day over how the new, "rightful" Asian Champion is having an affair with the cheating former Champion, and Ryouga kicks himself for forgetting the media wasn't far behind them.  
  
 _conditional_  
  
"If this puts Rio in a bad situation, I'm calling it off and you can fuck right off, end of story."  
  
 _gone_  
  
Even long after the rumors have died down, IV hates the morning hours he spends alone because they're gone to school then, and he's left with judgmental looks and quiet jeers from others on the sidewalk — it sets in heavier than ever that they really are his only friends.  
  
 _clear skies_  
  
Sometimes IV still has the dreams, about every waking nightmare that has ever happened in his life, and then he will wake in darkness and swear to never sleep again — but it's so easy now with bodies warm against his and smiles on his mind to chase away the bad dreams; finally, he doesn't have the dreams, wakes to sunshine on the night Rio and Ryouga both sleep on either side of him.  
  
 _heartache_  
  
Wordlessly, closing his eyes against the inner ache, he burrows into Rio's chest with Ryouga at his back, feeling more secure in the knowledge that they're there with him at all when they could have so, so easily gone on without him.  
  
 _wired_  
  
"No phones at the dinner table," Rio chides, and then, "Are you texting naughty things to IV?" to which Ryouga's only affirmation is a rather telling "Shut up, Rio."  
  
 _insanity_  
  
"You must be out of your goddamn mind if you think I'm going to keep entertaining your dick picture bullshit — and don't even think about sending Rio that kind of crap, either."  
  
 _foolish_  
  
"And _you_ must be desperate, crazy, or stupid to voluntarily submit yourself to my 'bullshit' for as long as you do, then," IV sneers, making a feline brush of lips against Ryouga's jaw, "and you know, you shouldn't be so cruel to the one getting you laid on a regular basis."  
  
 _words_  
  
Ryouga thinks, _Yeah, and those words are sugar coming from you with your_ golden _personality, so I guess neither of us have any room to complain anymore, jackass — you're as desperate and crazy as me, in the end._  
  
 _study_  
  
"IV," Rio says, as calmly as she can considering she has an exceptionally skilled pair of lips working at her neck and a rogue pair of hands sneaking down her stomach, "I am trying to do homework, unlike certain other irresponsible individuals, so if you would _kindly_ go bother Ryouga for — ahh..."  
  
 _punctual_  
  
"You're late," Ryouga says flatly, to which IV only has to say, "Nah, you two were just so eager to see me you got here too early, and _speaking_ of eager to see me—" and Rio can't tell if it is her brother or her... boyfriend? who makes the ungraceful moan when IV palms Ryouga's crotch.  
  
 _piggyback_ _  
  
_IV wonders sometimes if the twins have any idea how adorable it is how alike they can be sometimes, especially in moments where their attempts to snark at him turn more into heated contests of who can better one-up the other through (lovingly?) insulting him.  
  
 _shooting star_  
  
Heartland City has always been renowned for its view of the night sky, and although IV cannot see the small meteor shower that takes place far above his head, he makes a wish anyway.  
  
 _free_  
  
As he enters their mansion, his clothes in a bag and his phone turned off, IV realizes he hasn't felt this free in a long, long time.  
  
 _searching_  
  
"Good morning," Rio greets when he wakes up, and IV notices her eyes seem to be searching for something when she speaks.  
  
 _honey_  
  
"Welcome to Ryouga's House of Pancakes; party of one, is it?" she laughs, and although her brother grumbles at the way IV flips his apron up teasingly from behind, they all content themselves with honey on their pancakes in lieu of syrup.  
  
 _talk_  
  
That day, they talk seriously to one another about if they can continue this way: Ryouga tells IV if he ever pulls another idiotic stunt, he'll leave and never come back; Rio tells Ryouga that if _he_ forgets IV is a human being with feelings, and so is she, she'll give up on both of them; IV only tells them both that they can call him Thomas, if they want.  
  
 _maybe_  
  
They each take sips out of the same teacup, alternately, and think — maybe they can do this, after all.


End file.
